Flexible mud or splash guards, sometimes called flaps or pebble guards, are commonly employed on trucks and the like behind the rear wheels to protect following vehicles and particularly to protect the windshields of such vehicles. Such flaps or guards are customarily mounted on relatively rigid supports which are subject to breaking following repeated flexure due to wind currents or due to impact by external objects. A durable and lasting mounting for mud flaps, without unduly increasing the cost of the product, has been an objective in the prior art for some time.
As a result, a number of prior United States patents have been issued which disclose yielding supports or mountings for mud flaps. Several examples of the prior art patents along this line are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,660,453; 2,865,655 and 2,872,211.
While the teachings of the prior art patents are an improvement over the older non-yielding or non-self-adjusting mounts for mud flaps, nevertheless the prior art teachings fail to completely solve the problem from several practical standpoints. In some prior art devices, the rod or holder from which the flap is suspended is supported entirely by springs. While this renders the mount yielding, it does not assure the required structural integrity needed to prevent separation of the flap from the vehicle under some severe conditions of impact and this can lead to a safety hazard. In other prior art structures employing spring means, the mounting mechanisms are relatively complex and too costly for practical commercial application. None of the prior art structures approaches the problem by employing a positive and firm pivot for the mud flap support arm on an appropriate mounting bracket, with coacting adjustable tension spring means associated with the arm and mounting bracket to yieldingly resist turning or pivoting of the flap and support arm on the axis of the pivot fore or aft. This particular arrangement is essentially incorporated in the present invention, and by this means the invention is thought to completely alleviate the deficiencies of the prior art, as above noted, through a very simple, efficient and economical means. In essence, the present invention as contrasted with prior art proposals is entirely practical and suitable for commercial application to vehicles. Durability and resistance to fatigue and failure of the mud flap support is assured by the invention, as well as safety in that the flap support rod will not become separated from the mounting bracket, due to the use of a positive and secure pivot for the rod or arm, in contrast to a mere spring support or other unstable mount. The yieldability of the mount in two directions under controlled tension by means of the invention solves the problem of durability which is not obtainable through rigid mounts.
Other specific features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following detailed description.